Introduction to
the TO8

What began as a 'thought
experiment' has turned into a genuinely powerful method for
interpreting the human personality, our social relationships, and the
complexities of the mating partnership..

People in
widespread
cultures are finding that their
traditional methods of thinking about themselves, using star signs and
other astrological methods are not actually helping them
make good relationships.

The TO8 is a
fresh set
of culture-independent tools for the
understanding of how and why we make the relationships we do, and how
to assess the ones we are in or want to make.

The TO8 was developed in
the 1980s by a poet and scientist
who, by using sociological observation and scientific
reasoning about how our personalities may have evolved, has
found a standpoint to examine the continuing story of human society.

Even Iggy Pop
Loves
Gardening

An intelligent
very
hardworking and always busy friend of mine came
into my office the other day wreathed in smiles and waving a piece of
paper. 'It's him,' she said. 'I know it's him.'

'Let's take a
look', I
said. And I looked at the paper she
slid on my desk. On it were listed the features of a man: such and such
a height, weight, complexion, age, his sporting prowess, his loves and
hates, his desires for a family, his job that could really take him
places, his little bit of private income, his belief system and the
rest.

It seemed to me
that
there were a few things missing. I saw
nothing about his kindness or charitableness, his problem solving
capabilities, creativity, what he had set out to see and do and how far
he had got along this road, nor did I see much about how he viewed the
passing of time or his private genuine take on the meaning of life. But
I said what I was expected to say. 'He seems very nice.'

She laughed.
'Look, he
loves dogs and walks in the country. He
loves curling up with a good book and going to the theatre, but he
wouldn't say no to a fast car or spending all night dancing. He cooks.
He loves kids.'

I doubt and I
question
for a living but that still does not
prepare me for the self-delusion I witness even among those I love
dearly.

My friend, let
us call
her Sheila, had reluctantly signed up
with a dating agency. She had had a very nice boyfriend for some years
but he moved out on her one day, and when Sheila surrounded herself
with her friends trying to overcome the shock - it had come out of the
blue, or so she said, she realised that she had been falling behind in
the date race. While Sheila had been cosying up to man she had
professed to love not so long ago, dating had become a fashion
accessory. She joined the craze. She speed-dated, she blind-dated, she
cross-dated, she 'sexed-in-the-city' until finally she slapped a
month's salary into the hands of an apparently exclusive agency and
waited for Mr. Right to call.

'I didn't know
you liked
dogs.' I said.

She made an
apologetic
face. 'Yeah, some dogs.'

'I recall how
you can
never suspend your disbelief in a
theatre enough to like it.'

'I had just
been to lot
of bad plays, then. I like theatre.'

'A piece of
theatre or
The Theatre? It's an important
difference.'

'Why are you
being so
challenging? We are talking about him,
Mr. Right, right, not about me.'

'Is that how it
seems?'

She was
defensive,
because she saw what I was driving at.
'Why?'

'Could it be
that you've
set yourself up for just this Mr.
Right? Think about it. How many people would say 'no' to walks in the
country or to rollicking with a new puppy or to fine wines and good
food or to the highest and best that culture has to offer, or to
romantic candle-lit dinners for two, or to spontaneous weekend
honeymoons in country farms? Tell me, out of all the individuals who
have filled out the same form you filled out, and whatever else they
also wanted from a partner, how many would say they hate all these
things? Even if there were a few who did out of cynicism and even shame
for what they were doing, would they also want someone who thought the
same? You know, even Iggy Pop loves gardening.'

Sheila's eyes
started to
glisten but I was not ashamed that my
rhetoric had got away from me. I know Sheila, and I know she expects
precisely this. That is why she brought Mr. Right to me in the first
place.

Sheila
recovered
herself. 'Well, this guy might be just like
me then,' she said. 'He does what's expected to get the date, knowing
he can prove himself afterwards.'

'So you did the
same?'

'Yes, in a way.
There's
a ritual to dating. Everyone knows
that.'

'Well why do
you expect
this guy to be like you? He's covering
himself up with standard replies. Why do think that even his weight and
height are true? You know there are spectators at Forest Lawns who
wander about dressed in whites and tennis shoes carrying tennis
rackets.'

Sheila's eyes
started to
glisten again. 'I have to start from
somewhere.'

'Yes, but a
self-appraisal isn't necessarily a fair appraisal
of self. You need other tools to find out what people are like. Have
you ever read my book?'

Essential Personalities,
and why humans found Love, adapted to monogamy and became better
parents

Andrew Kennedy's long-awaited new book demolishes popular beliefs about
human mating strategies. We have to remember that we are all designed
to be parents, and that parenting success over the last 50,000 years
hinged on a new innate system of making relationships.

With intense conversations with two women his life this author tries to nail down a form of personality typing that marries human evolution with a new form of astrology. Ends with descriptions of all the personality types he believes can be identified, and how to find out what type a person is. More important than all the science, the author writes convincingly about the hows and whys of making relationships and how you can find your best partner (it's not what you think). For anyone wanting some kind of clue as to who is going to be good for them and why, then read this understandable but fairly high-brow on the philosophy book. You may find yourself looking at your dates in a different way, and thinking some strange thoughts about what human society is all about. Men are not from Mars, nor women from Venus, they both come from the same planet, Earth, and they are a lot more similar than the rumours have it.

With the systematic production of personalty types, humans are
better enabled to seek and make successful relationships beyond the
family and outside the group. Strangers become not only comprehensible
but attractive, explaining at a stroke why tribes and societies always
slowly change and evolve.

'They are,' the author says, 'the proof of what I am talking
about. If they don't make sense, then my arguments fail.'

Gravity Publishing's editor says, ' Not only does the reader get
entertaining and interesting science, but the readers are introduced to
a full-blown method of understanding themselves and the people they
know. It's a tremendous piece of work and we are really happy to
finally bring it to the bookshops.'

Andrew Kennedy was born and educated in England, graduating from
Edinburgh University with a B.Sc. He is married with a daughter and
shares his time between a farm in the Pyrenees and Andalusia. He has
worked in a variety of occupations and has travelled widely. He devised
the personality theory he calls the TO8 in the 1980s. He holds a patent
in a switching device, created the Taoism-inspired 3-D board game, The
Game of Rat and Dragon and has published two books about Taoism, The
Jade Suit, an epic poem about Chinese history, and Briefing Leaders,
which contained new translations of two Chinese classics, I Ching and
Tao Tê Ching in which he incorporates the philosophy into a
fictional account of Lao Tze's last days. He studied Traditional
Chinese Medicine and graduated from the European School of Shiatsu as a
practitioner. He writes regularly about science, complementary medicine
and the human psyche.